A sister is the one person in the world you can be 100% your true, authentic, embarrassing self with. You’ve shared the greatest highs, the greatest lows and a whole load of baths (thanks, Mum). You’ve slid down the stairs on sofa pillows as kids, written cringe-worthy songs together as tweens, pretended you didn’t know each other for a few years as teenagers, before realising, as adults, there is no one who has got your back like she has.
They are also the only person who really gets your form of “weird” - and actively encourages it. Which is why nobody with a sister was not surprised to see Beyoncé and Solange tumbling to the floor during their joint performance at Coachella this weekend.
In a clip making sisters worldwide say “that’s classic us”, big sister Bey can be seen trying and failing to pick up Solange, before the pair both fall flat on their arses. They style it out with synchronised silly leg kicks, in a way that only sisters could pull off.
Sisters have a habit of egging each other on, which only works because there’s a certain fearlessness that comes by having your sister by your side. By yourself, you behave in a way that’s “socially acceptable”, you’re only human and prone to embarrassment. When you’re together, social acceptability goes out of the window - this is someone who has probably seen you at your worst - and any bystanders become irrelevant.
You have fun on your own terms, regressing to children at times, with the smug knowledge that no one in their right mind would mess with the two of you. You are unstoppable.
For Beyoncé and Solange, this means having a dance off on the world’s stage. For my sister and I, it means getting carried away at a family friend’s 60th birthday, choreographing an impromptu ‘Dad-style’ dance routine and giving zero f*cks about the people two-stepping behind us.
Sisters may drive us mad - refusing to let us play with their toys, teasing us about the people we “fancy”, and stealing our clothes the moment we’ve bought them - but they’re also the one’s we have the most shared experiences with.
Whether you’ve kept each other strong through your parents’ divorce, held one another after the loss of a grandparent, or laughed together until you’re hiccupping over something no one else finds funny, your hearts beat to the same rhythm (except mine doesn’t, because I have an irregular heartbeat...)
Your sister knows your story inside out: who you were in the past, who you want to be in the future, but most importantly, who you are now. And they don’t judge you for it, although they will tell you when you’ve made a terrible outfit choice.
When you’re with your sister, you can be as silly - or as vulnerable - as you want to be, thanks to the safety net of knowing they will be there for you no matter what.
So here’s to sisterhood far and wide, and to my own big sis: I will love you always, but if you ever decide you’re too cool to hang out with me, I will release that photo of you in a ‘Thunderbirds’ costume to the masses - that’s sister love for you.